During the early phase of the Covid-19 outbreak, Rakuna adapted to the situation quickly by offering our valued customers various ways to continue reaching out to talents. We offered various tips for recruiting teams to implement during this time of restricted traveling, which include:
Host virtual events using Rakuna’s Pre-event registration feature;
Utilize Rakuna’s email messaging feature and SMS recruiting tool to strengthen relationships with candidates;
Make use of Rakuna’s free recruiter resources;
In the following weeks after, we have seen a great usage of our virtual event support feature as well as received positive feedback from our customers. We learned how recruiters are utilizing Rakuna for their virtual events, what works best for them, and what other companies can do to maximize their online recruitment efforts.
To help you connect with prospects beyond offline events successfully, check out this best-practice-article on how you can leverage Rakuna, from pre-event to post-event, for your virtual recruitment.
About Rakuna’s Virtual Event feature
Rakuna’s virtual recruiting platform provides one central hub for all your recruiting events, including virtual events. The platform allows you to publish your company’s event calendar on the company’s website, easily promote your events via social media & emails, and collect prospects’ information and resumes without any hassle and paperwork. As a result, you have a centralized database of all prospective candidates for seamless candidate relationship management.
Our customers are holding webinars and use virtual events on Rakuna to collect candidates’ information via the “Pre-Event Registration” form. The collected information include:
Prospect’s resume
Prospect’s contact information (Name, Email, Phone, Address)
Prospect’s education information (Institution name, Major, GPA, Graduation month/year)
Prospect’s answers to the customer’s customized evaluation form
Post-virtual-event, follow-up emails are automated via Rakuna, allowing customers to continue staying engaged with their prospects.
In September 2020, we have seen over 50+ virtual events held with 1,000+ prospects registered.
Best Practice: How to best utilize Rakuna’s virtual event support features?
Pre-Event
1. Customize ‘Post-event Messaging Template’
Similar to the automated mass communication emails sent out to all prospective candidates after offline events, emails will also be automated for all of your virtual events.
With different templates, recruiters can send personalized emails to each prospective candidate to keep him or her updated throughout the recruiting process. With automated features included, recruiters also save time doing manual tasks post-event to focus entirely on engaging online with prospects.
To best use the Messaging template feature for your virtual events:
Integrate ‘Custom Fields’ into your email content
Designate one person who will receive all the “Reply-To” emails
Set your template as a default if you plan to use the same template for every event
Include specific content in your Messaging template, such as:
Track emails sent to your candidates using Rakuna’s Messaging status feature
To learn more, read: Best Practice #3: Post-Event/Interview Messaging Template
2. Customize ‘Evaluation Form’ and include it in the Pre-Event Registration link
At offline events, Evaluation Form or Form can be used during face-to-face interactions with candidates. With virtual events, a form can be customized and included within the Pre-Event Registration link for prospects to fill out. This gives recruiters the ability to receive additional information not included in the prospects’ resume for further evaluation.
To include the form in your Pre-Event Registration link, when creating a new Event, select checkbox “Show form on Pre-Event Registration link?”
To best use the form for your online events:
Keep evaluation questions to 15 words max
Only include key evaluating questions
Here are a few generic questions we recommend recruiters to consider for your Evaluation Form:
Position sought? (Internship, Full-time, Part-time, Co-op)
VISA sponsorship required? (Yes/No)
Location interest? (If the company is hiring for multiple offices)
Willing to relocate? (Yes/No)
Interested job functions? (The list of job function your company offers to the targeted audience of the recruiting event)
Any questions you would like us to answer during the event? (Open, text-field question)
No need to have questions asking for the prospect’s full name, email, phone number, and address as these are already available on the Pre-Event Registration link
No need to have questions asking for the prospect’s college/university name, major, GPA, graduation month, and graduation year as our system will automatically parse this information from the resume for you
To learn more, read: Best Practice #2: Evaluation Form Creation
3. Include the keyword “Virtual Event” in your event name
To differentiate your virtual event from the non-virtual-ones, it is best to include the keyword “Virtual Event” at the start or the end of your event name. Prospects will easily understand that this is an online event, which may increase the likelihood of them signing up for it.
4. Include your webinar/conference link in the event
Whether you are hosting your virtual event on a separate online platform (Zoom, Google Hangout, WebEx,...) or joining a virtual career fair hosted by another institution, always include that link in the Rakuna Event so when candidates pre-register, they have access to this link as well.
5. Include event description
Description is an optional fields when creating an Event on Rakuna. We highly recommend including it to give more credibility to the event itself, allowing you to maximize your promotional content for a virtual setting.
Tips on what to include in your event description:
What the focus of the event is - info session, networking, webinar,...
What the event agenda will include
Who your guest speakers and experts are (if applicable)
Any other information that will help prospective attendees further understand your events
The more attractive and appealing your event description is, the more likely prospects will be interested in registering and attending the event.
6. Include your organization logo, description, and social media links
Don’t forget to update your Organization Profile on Rakuna, which includes your organization logo, website, description, and social media links (YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) to enhance your employer branding on the Pre-Event Registration link.
The current and future main workforce spend a large amount of their time on the internet, especially social networks. Social media is a gateway to effective branding and recruiting, so if you’re not already in the game, you are missing out on a lot of opportunities.
7. Promote event using the Pre-Event Registration form
Promote your virtual event with the Pre-Event Registration form to build your candidate pipeline early via social media, email, text, and/or organization partners.
To quickly share the Pre-Event Registration form, you can:
Copy and paste the link from Rakuna into your email or text
Click on the social media icons (Facebook, Twitter, Email, LinkedIn, Reddit) on the form to quickly share
Using the Pre-Event Registration form is not only a great way to monitor interests before the event (based on the number of pre-registered participants), but also to continue collecting information even after the event ends.
8. Embed the event calendar on your company’s career page
Embed your events, created on Rakuna, on your company’s career page to make sure visitors or interested prospects have access to the most updated information.
If you have not done this before, contact Rakuna at support@rakuna.co to get assistance.
9. Check attendees and event questions
Before the event starts, check for the number of interested participants in the event’s Prospect List (click “Total Interactions”); you may want to adjust the content and/or duration of your event based on the number of attendees.
In addition, if you include the question “Which questions would you like us to answer at the event?” or “What questions do you have for our speakers?” this will be a great way for you to further understand the prospect’s concerns, interests, and help them clarify at the event.
During-Event
10. Let our OCR and Prospect List features handle your work
When your virtual event starts, prospects’ information, including their personal details (parsed by our OCR technology) and evaluation form submission will be updated in real-time on the event’s Prospect List. You won’t need to do anything else, except engaging with the talents at your virtual event.
Post-Event
11. Check event metrics
Event metrics will be ready for you after the event ends. Post-event, follow-up, and feedback survey emails will be automated by Rakuna, so you can just sit back and wait for data to come in.
You will be able to check event metrics on:
Total interactions (number of registered participants)
Messaging status (status of the follow-up emails sent to participants post-event)
Average event rating (rated by the registered participants via the feedback survey email sent to participants post-event)
Event feedback (given by the participants via the feedback survey email)
With these data, you can also download as CSV (excel file), or export to ATS (if you have integrated your ATS on Rakuna) to sync.
Bottom Line
The current recruitment world has been highly disrupted by what has happened in the last few months and virtual recruiting is now pushing recruiters to become more creative and proactive more than ever. Don’t hesitate to try out our tips and see how you can best utilize them for your virtual recruitment.
If you are still unsure about how to use our virtual recruiting features for your specific needs, get in touch with our team today via sales@rakuna.co or chat with us online to see how we can help you stay on track with your recruiting plan.
Can’t find your questions or concerns in this best practice? Worry not! Send us your questions to support@rakuna.co and we’ll respond right away.